Gate Guardian - Song of the Frozen Soul

PHASE 60 - I'M SORRY, I LIVED

PHASE 60 - I'M SORRY, I LIVED

When I woke up, I was in a middle of a well-lit wooden hall. I believe this is a chamber of the Kozukata Shrine, and I'm sitting on a magical circle. There are lots of talismans stuck on my body that made me look like a bulletin board with a lot of sticky notes. There are a total of ten shrine maidens surrounding me, praying infinitely in their Japanese chants. Among them is Tiara.

The exorcism gave me a lot of pain in my head, and it made my vision a lot more woozy. I'm seriously sick. I feel so weak that I want to sleep, or maybe die already. I wanted to puke.

Finally, the magical circle's light faded. But before I'm allowed to move, the shrine maiden head Asumi forced my eye to open with her fingers, as she lights my vision with a blinding flashlight like an optical doctor.

"As I thought," Asumi muttered as she removed the flashlight away from my face. "There is still the residue of the curse on your eyes. It may come back if left untreated regularly."

"So he's still cursed?" Amy asked with her arms crossed.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's hard to exorcise a tainted heart with an unusual God Core attached. I have no idea how to remove it. I haven't encountered any Fake God Core in my whole life, especially coming from a Lovecraft Mythos. But don't worry, he won't go haywire unless he use the Fake God Core or get triggered by his hatred."

"Is there a way to prevent him from transforming into a Cursed Guardian again?" Amy asked.

"The only viable option, for now, is to seal his Guardian Ability and his God Core. Those horrible <Presages> and transforming to Lord Cthulhu always trigger his hatred, so we need to put those away for a while."

Amy let out a heavy sigh and certainly looks worried. The blonde kitten pushed her face closer to mine.

"Hey, Ric. Do you feel better now? You're awfully quiet and expressionless. Is there still bothering your mind?"

"Actually... There is..." I scratched my head. "W-What happened to the entrapment operation? I can barely remember anything."

"Huuuuuh?" Amy curled her eyebrows and tilted her face.

"Actually..."

Asumi slowly raised her hand to get Amy's attention. "Amnesia is a side effect of an exorcism. We removed some of his memories and thoughts that are already corrupted by a deadly sin. We don't have control over the memories being deleted. It's like an antivirus deleting virus-infected files from your hard drive. That is why we wouldn't want to exorcise Drex Brynheim yet because he might forget vital pieces of information about the New Order."

Amy's face became red, and there are cross-veins all over her forehead. She stared at me, while I look at her back with the face of a clueless dog. Seriously, I have no idea what's happening!

"Ric you dumb idiot foolish stupid moron!"

Amy cried as she smashed my head with her soft fists alternately. One or two hit may sting, but she's seriously trying to kill my brain! And to make it worse, she combined it with her fast sermons!

"After I tried mustering all the courage I got! After I swallowed my pride! After I got wrapped by your disgusting tentacles! After confessing all the feelings I had for you! After giving you my first kiss! YOU JUST FORGET ALL THOSE PRECIOUS MEMORIES JUST BY PASSING OUT!!! You're the worst disgusting nerd I know!!!"

"Ow! Stop it!" I cried. I never understood her words because her smashes are way noisier than her mouth!

Amy finally stopped hitting me and made a "Hmph!" sound as she crossed her arms again and looked away. I turned to Asumi, wordlessly asking what happened during the battle against Diadem but she just smiled. I turned to Tiara, to my putrid friend who's name I couldn't remember, and to Key, but they just shook their head.